ATAA season 1

Chapter 2: Meet the Turnabout [Part 5]

__________________________February 16th 11:00AM
                   Yama No Mura
                    Central shrine
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"Oh hey guys!" We were immediately called out by Tiff who looked as eager as ever.
"You're still here Tiff?" Rei tilted his head in surprise.
"Yeah... Rotty is not giving me a break." Her face puffed up and she looked off to the side.
"He says I'm supposed to investigate the body more thoroughly but the stupid guards have blocked off the area for now..."
"But why are they keeping the detectives and investigators away from the scene?"
"How the hell should I know?! I kept telling them to let me in but they just wouldn't listen!"
"If I had to guess, the queen might've commanded them to be there."
"Oh right... the queen, that might just be it." Rei gave Tiff a confused look and gave me a frown.
"So what do we do in the meantime?"
"I advise you take Rotty's advice and check the houses around the crime scene, those should still be accessible."
I placed my hands on my hips and started to think.
"You should be joined shortly by Miss Hi Tinh Thân, she's quite strong so don't try anything!"
"No need to worry!" Why would I try anything?! I gave a nervous chuckle and walked away as fast as I could while dragging Rei behind me.
"That was a little odd..." Rei stopped to think.
"What's up Rei?"
"It's nothing, Tiff just seemed a bit off to me." I didn't understand him completely but he knew Tiff better than I did so I didn't question him.
"Didn't she ask us to look at the buildings?" Rei pointed at the guards blocking the crime scene
"See that building? The victim was impaled on it." Right, and where was the witnesses' home? I looked around and found the house with the nameplate 'Rairakku'.
"So Shioreta saw everything from here?" Rei nodded in response and multiple detectives walked out, several giving us dirty looks and one opening the door for us.
"Is it really alright to just walk in without permission?" Rei shrugged and walked in anyway.
"Wow! This place is really tidy." Rei seemed genuinely impressed and it was as if he had never seen a stove before. I went upstairs into Shioreta's room and looked out her window.
"Sure enough, I can see the scene from here." And hand prints were on the windowsill and the rest was covered in dust.
"Rapunzel, let down your hair" I heard laughter from below, It was Tiff snickering to herself. I went down the stairs to greet her.
"Are you enjoying playing detective?" She giggled and leaned on the counter, almost pushing a vase off.
"Do you need something?"
"Yes actually, I was wondering if you would do me a big favour." Did I even wanna ask?
"It doesn't involve touching a dead body, does it?"
"Hahah, of course not. I'll leave that to the professionals! I need you to investigate the top of the building Chīsai was impaled on." My jaw dropped and I was dumbfounded.
"How am I gonna get up there?!"
"Oh calm down, you act like it's a really tall building! It's only 60 feet tall!"
60 feet?! What is this building, an office?
"Um, Angelique!?" Rei called out from another room and I ran towards his voice.
"I found this dark closet."
"What the hell, don't go through it!"
"I know it's a breach of privacy but look what I found." He dug up a black and white photo of a group of men and the back was labelled with 'Mafia 2010'
"W-what?! The mafia?"
"There was talk of a crime boss frequently visiting this place and was undetectable"
"Then how did you know if the rumour was true?"
"We didn't. There was only speculation, but to think that the mafia used to actually be here..." Tiff called from the kitchen
"Is everything alright over there?"
"Yeah! Everything's fine I'll be with you in just a second!" I signalled to Rei to keep looking in the closet and I returned to Tiff.
"You ready to climb some stairs, Firefly?" I sighed and walked out slouching and defeated.
"Oh, take this thingy, you'll need it once you're up there!" She handed me a walkie talkie and saw me off with an innocent smile. I started to climb the seemingly endless stairs and the walkie talkie started to speak
"Let me know if you see anything interesting or anything odd. Over"
After a few more sets of stairs it started to talk again
"How about we grab a bite to eat later, buddy? Over" I just ignored her and continued to trek up the stairs
"I'll take that as a yes! Just so you know you should just about reaching the halfway point! Over" I exhaled and leaned against the stairway wall the stone coldness was refreshing and I continued once again. I had finally made it to the top and saw...
"Mai? What are you doing up here?"
She turned around in surprise and placed her hand on her heart.
"Be careful, don't go scaring people off a roof!"
"Oh, right sorry.." I looked around and saw what looked like a sniper rifle.
"What's that doing there?"
"I have no clue it appeared after the murder.. I think it was used to shoot at the lamppost, the one that no longer works." She seemed to be right as the rifle was pointed towards it.
"You hear that Tiff?"
"Loud and clear, but it's weird. There's no broken glass around the lamppost and no one has been able to clean the floors around here."
"That's strange, maybe the glass didn't fully break?" Mai shook her head
"The lamppost was missing glass shards"
"Not to worry girls, we're investigating the lamppost right now"
Below, I could see two detectives with a ladder and Tiff watching
"Wow, they got that stepladder pretty quick!"
"Mai, I'm pretty sure that's a ladder..."
"Does it matter?"
"Firefly, It's obviously a stepladder! It has steps!"
"All ladders have steps, Tiff!"
"Both of you! Concentrate on the investigation." Mai got us both to stop arguing and my approached the rifle and checked the chamber.
"That's weird.."
"What's up Mai?"
"Normally you'd find the bullet casing somewhere around here but it's nowhere to be seen..."
"Um guys, I've got some odd news."
"Odd as in what?" Tiff cleared her throat.
"We didn't find a bullet in the lamppost; we found a pebble..."
"What the- why?"
"We have no clue, it's quite jarring actually..." I bet it is. After looking around and finding nothing we finally decided to head back down and it was just in time as Rei was waiting at the bottom for us to arrive.
"Angelique, Miss Mai! Big news. I continued to look in the closet and I found this!"
He pulled out a think rope that seemed to have seen better days.
"Okay, and this is important because?"
"Weren't you paying attention to Ms Rairakku's testimony?"
"You don't seriously think the victim was strangled, do you?"
"I do! The rope is frayed and everything!"
"Rei, the autopsy report didn't mention anything about strangulation."
"But something doesn't feel right."
"Firefly, Rei. Instead of arguing, maybe try doing something useful and investigate." Tiff was right, we were just wasting time but another problem occurred, what was there left to investigate? I looked around and saw that Mai was looking at the body intensely.
"Is everything okay Mai?"
"Shhh. I'm working." She tried to shoo me away like a child but kneeled next to her.
"You seem pretty good at this, do you have experience?" She stared at the body without saying a word
"You know, back on the roof you sounded just like a detectives, more so than Tiff."
"... I know someone who is a brilliant detective."
"Oh, like a mentor?" She shook her head.
"Not very talkative, huh. Well keep it up kid." She seemed a bit annoyed about being called a kid but she quickly shook it off.
"What are you two up to?" Tiff came over. Mai didn't answer but I gave her a thumbs up.
"There's a lot of wounds... but no weapon. That's what you're thinking, Isn't it Mai?" She nodded and rolled up the sleeve of her kimono.
"Can I have your permission, Ms Detec?" Tiff nodded and Mai put on disposable gloves and did something I didn't think I'd ever have to see.
"What are you doing Mai?!" I gasped as Mai entered her hand into one of Chīsai's wounds.
"Aha." She pulled out a sharp shard of glass covered in blood. I gagged and tried to keep it together
"Geez, I'm impressed Mai. How did you know it would be there?"
"I didn't, I looked into the wound and saw something shiny and decided to take it out." Tiff took the shard off her and gave it to the detectives to submit into evidence along with the pebble.
"Hold on. There are more shards" she retrieved as many as she could until she gave up.
"Goodness that was disgusting" she sighed as she removed the gloves
"You're saying that now? I thought you were only 14! Why are you so comfortable with shoving your hands in wounds?" Mai shrugged
"Can I ask you a question Tiff?" Tiff nodded and Mai proceeded to ask
"Did you examine the body?"
"No. I wasn't in charge of this investigation."
"Then who was, do you know?"
"Mr Rotuc Esorp, if I had to guess... why?" Mai walked towards the body and tilted the head back.
"Because the autopsy is completely inaccurate." Chīsai's neck was completely bruised. Tiff raised her eyebrows
"She was right all along, and the rope was in her house..." I couldn't stop staring at the neck in awe, and I was starting to feel nauseous just thinking about how painful her death was.
"So now we know that both testimonies were accurate, yes?" Both of them nodded and I sighed and Tiff placed her hands on her hips.
"Here's a better question, why didn't the culprit just slit her neck to mask the strangulation?"
"Why did they even strangle her in the first place after stabbing her so many times?" Both of them were asking more and more questions and it felt like we weren't getting any closer to figuring anything out. But by far my biggest concern was as to why Rotuc tried to hide it from us and I could tell that Tiff had the same thing bugging her, her eyes looked dejected and deceived. But I could only piece it all together in court tomorrow.

[TO BE CONTINUED]